This invention relates to a method and a test area to prevent tampering in the collection of specimens for substance abuse testing and, more particularly, to prevent tampering in the collection of specimens for substance abuse testing from a subject utilizing a specimen collection container.
In recent years, a considerable amount of attention has been focused on the social and economic, as well as other, consequences of substance abuse, that is, the use of illegal drugs, the illegal or deleterious use of legally controlled drugs, or the deleterious use of freely available drugs including alcohol. The efforts to control and eradicate substance abuse and the consequences thereof encompass many diverse strategies, however, a feature common to many of these approaches places a strong emphasis on the testing of specimens from human subjects to determine whether substance abuse has occurred. Not only is such testing conducted as part of many programs concerned with matters in the nature of drug/alcohol rehabilitation and probation and parole of criminal offenders (e.g., no substance abuse as a condition of parole; drunk driving) but it is also increasingly required as a condition of gaining or retaining employment, particularly where safety or integrity is important (e.g., airline pilots, railroad engineers, truck drivers, and public officials). In each case, the subject who abuses such substances has a considerable social and financial incentive to tamper with specimens which would indicate substance abuse upon testing, that is test positive. For instance, depending on the subject's circumstances, a positive test could mean denial or loss of employment and therefore income, dismissal from military service, change in parole or probation status, criminal prosecution, designation as a chronic abuser, and/or designation as a security risk.
In order to foil detection a subject may tamper with a substance abuse test in at least two ways. One way is to substitute another person, one who is not a substance abuser, for the actual subject. Another way is for the subject to introduce a false specimen instead of his own during the specimen collection process. A false specimen is defined as: a specimen given by the subject at a prior time when drug-free; a specimen obtained by the subject from another person; or a substance with properties similar to that of a specimen; which is free of detectable amounts of the substance that is to be tested for, and which is concealed beforehand and introduced by the subject instead of a valid specimen.
Concerns for protecting the fundamental privacy and dignity of subjects dictate against direct observation of the subject during specimen collection as a means of preventing introduction of a false specimen. While protecting the important privacy interests of subjects, presently known methods overly rely on the individual honesty of subjects and attendant personnel thus presenting a variety of opportunities for tampering. Identification procedures are not always rigorous and a substitute may appear instead of the true subject. If the identification procedure is adequate, a dishonest or lax attendant may not adhere to it. If the subject is properly identified, subsequent inadequate or dishonest supervision of the testing area may allow someone else to substitute for the subject. Finally, as mentioned hereinabove, a properly identified subject, particularly in the privacy of a toilet, may introduce a false specimen obtained and concealed beforehand. Thus, recent studies show that up to 40 percent of urine specimens given in employee substance abuse testing programs are false. Presently known methods of specimen collection rely on measuring specimen temperature and comparing it to normal body temperature to determine whether or not a specimen is false. These methods, however, permit subjects to successfully introduce false specimens with ease. For instance, old, drug-free samples of the subject's urine or substances having properties (e.g., pH, color, density) similar to urine are held under the armpit by the subject in order to raise the false specimen's temperature to approximately body temperature, thus foiling detection.